Of course there's always people with the opposite view-point that say that change is a bad thing. They do have a point...
But as this is a war-games site rather than a place to go to laugh at celebrities that have got fat (that's just a bonus) let's look at change in 40K...
Well fairly recently we had a new Necron Codex which despite my minor niggle with it jumping on the 1+1 bandwagon was a definite change for the better. The background was rewritten to give them a bit of personality which was definitely needed as I (like many people) couldn't really get excited about a load of silent, personality-less robots. The model range was also an issue because it was...well...fucking boring, if were being even slightly honest. This is a hobby based primarily around the models with the actual rules and gaming being a firm second place (definitely in Games Workshops own eyes) so an army with boring, uninspiring, samey units is a definite issue. So a background that was interesting combined with a wider range of models and units (even if one of them is vehicle 'A' turned upside down to become vehicle 'B'.) was a move in entirely the right direction. Much as I was looking for another reason to hunt down and brutally murder Matt Ward he managed to outwit me by not creating a bag of shit.....Well done Matt.....I guess.....
So then, onto ...Grey Knights
Is the new Grey Knight codex an improvement over the last one?
From a purely mechanical point of view then yes it's much improved. It has a few of the usual Matt Ward rule oversights (such as hideously underestimating the in-game impact of a weapon being strength 8 rather than 7) and does somewhat work on the premise that all Daemon players are masochists and probably never wanted to use their army in an actual tournament anyway, lol. That aside it's a fairly well balanced piece of work that it's possible to pick a few holes in but then that applies to any new codex if you look hard enough.
Where the change is a definite backward step is in the background...
Now everybody likes their heroes to be a level higher than the bad-guys (with the exception of the one quite hard right-hand man and possibly a leader who has some kind of game levelling super ability for absolutely no adequately explained reason other than to provide a climatic ending) as that's why they're a hero...however....What I originally liked about the Grey Knights was the fact that they were still 'standard' Space Marines who had shown the incredible levels of Willpower that it takes to face the very embodiments of evil and emerge unscathed. The fact that none of them had ever turned to Chaos was all the more impressive because they did it through sheer force of will.....
Of course things are a bit different now. Daemons bounce off their armour, their weapons kill Daemons in neighbouring systems if a Grey Knight even thinks about waving it at an enemy, they walk around in giant robot exoskeletons, bitch slapping Greater Daemons and one of their leaders can apparently go toe to toe with Daemonic Primarchs despite the fact that the Daemon in question could just turn the planet he's on to lava under the cunts feet if he damn well felt like it...
So there we have two examples of change.....one good.....one.....not so much.....
However pretty soon were going to have two really major changes in the world of 40k, namely Chaos Legions and 6th Edition...
I have high hopes for the Chaos Legions Codex (Codices?) but that hope is tinged with the usual sensation of 'I hope they don't fuck this up' that accompanies all such offerings from GW. New models is a given as certain of the Chaos range is distinctly showing it's age and much of the rest needs a facelift. But the models aren't my concern as the guys at Nottingham have made almost no screw-ups in this area for fucking years. Even the Stormraven (which I despise with a passion) isn't exactly 'bad', I just happen to not like it.....Though if they decide to give an equivalent to the forces of Chaos then I won't exactly be complaining. An equivalent to the Razorback would be a fairly welcome addition as well ;-)
Even the background should be fairly safe (he says while crossing his fingers). The cool stuff is fairly well documented and the Horus Heresy novels and short stories have done a fine job of filling in the gaps. All that's needed is a possible advancing of the Time-line, some more detail about certain of the other large chaos forces (such as those belonging to Huron) and perhaps a few new special characters as I'd personally quite like to see a 'Warsmith' type character included somewhere.
The real 'make or break' is going to be the rules balance though. Go too far down the 'Elite' path and your stuck with an army that can easily be 'torrented' to death and obviously doing completely the opposite creates a whole set of problems as well. Look on any blog even vaguely associated with Chaos Marines and you'll find a massive 'wish-list' but mine can be summed up in six primary points.
1) Make 'Cult' specialist units an option (Khorne Terminators with WS5 and Furious Charge, Nurgle Havocs with 'Feel no Pain' etc.)
2) Don't charge us 30 points more than a Space Marine Codex equivalent unit for no apparent reason.
3) Ditch the whole 'the Icon guy is dead therefore we'll instantly forget that we were T5' thing.
4) Don't for fuck's sake copy/paste that piece of shit Dreadnought 'Crazed' rule across into another edition you fucking bastards.
5) Please don't suck.
6) No really, I mean it, please don't suck.....
Of course, much of the viability of any new codex is going to be affected in one way or another by the imminent arrival of 6th Edition.
At the moment, any discussion on 6th Edition is a tad pointless due to the fact that this weeks rumours will (for the most part) completely invalidate last weeks...My only statement on the subject is this.....
If it aint broke, don't fix it ;-)
I've decided to leave my final opinion on the subject in the capable hands of Dilbert,
Thoughts and Comments are (as usual) most welcome, but I understand if your all a bit busy at this time of year ;-)
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